Clockwork
by Miko Maleficus
Summary: They fit together, like gears in a clock. A collection of Ed/Winry drabbles and short stories. Ratings will vary; most are fluff. 16-18 posted 8/4
1. blue eyes

**Author's Note, part one:** So I've had this collection of drabble-esque things I call "ficbits" hanging about on my ficjournal for _ages _and it occurred to me that some of you lovely people might like to read them as well. Most are in the same 'verse as "Healer;" some are not. Also: some of them are several years old, and chances are I haven't bothered to tweak them much, so don't be surprised if the style and quality of them varies a bit. A lot of them jump into the middle of a scene and then leap back out again without any explanation whatsoever. Sorry.

Thanks to my darling Mariah for the series title!

**Title: **Blue Eyes  
**Rating:** G/K  
**Genre: **Fluff. Sappy fluff.  
**Word Count:** 1,509  
**Author's Note, part deux: **Healer-verse. By this point Ed and Winry would be in their mid-twenties.

**Disclaimer: **This applies to the entire drabble series: I do not, never have, nor will I ever own Fullmetal Alchemist. The closest I come is a collection of gashapon and a pocketwatch.

:x:x:x:

"Winry, look at me. _Winry!_ Are you listening to me?"

She nodded.

"I know it hurts, and I'm sorry. If I could make it stop, I would, you _know _I would. But I can't. Winry…" he smoothed sweat-soaked hair out of her face. "Winry, do you trust me?"

"Always," she whispered, without any hesitation.

"Then believe me when I _promise _you that it _will _be over soon. But you _have _to help. You know Rennifer, here, don't you?"

She nodded again.

"Can you trust her for me? She knows exactly what she's doing, and if you listen to her, she can help you, okay?"

"Okay," she murmured.

"Don't you dare give up on me, Winry. I won't _let _you. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because I love you, Winry, do you hear me? _I love you, _and you are not giving up on me now."

Her eyes widened, and then she smiled brilliantly at him. "I love you too."

"Here, take my hand, and listen to Rennifer. I'll be right here. I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

She clasped his hand, squeezing it tightly, and turned her attention to the woman standing at the foot of the bed.

Two hours and three severely crushed fingers later, Edward Elric had a daughter.

They named her Catia. She was a tiny, perfect copy of her mother. Emphasis on tiny, he thought in wonder as she was put into his arms. Tiny fingernails, tiny hands, tiny eyelashes, tiny nose and mouth. No tiny teeth, not yet. He winced at the thought. He vaguely remembered the time when Al was teething as a continuous period of very loud screaming.

"Ed?" Winry's voice broke into her thoughts. "Let me see her."

He handed Catia over very carefully, terrified that he would drop her. As he watched Winry hold their daughter close, talking to her, he felt suddenly very domestic, and grinned broadly.

"I bet I look _awful_, " Winry said.

"Yeah," he replied, still grinning. "You're beautiful, you know."

She flushed and smiled at him.

:x:x:x:

Constructive criticism is, as always, warmly welcomed! Expect bunches more of these very soon.


	2. morning coffee

**Title:** Morning Coffee  
**Rating: **G/K  
**Genre: **More sappy fluff.  
**Word Count: **1,031  
**Author's Note: **Ed and Winry would both be about nineteen or twenty in this one.

:x:x:x:

Ed came down to the kitchen one morning to find Winry already up and putting together a simple breakfast of toast and coffee. He grinned; she was, to all appearances, wearing nothing but her underwear and one of his old shirts. Even though he was only a handful of inches taller than her, his shoulders were much wider, and the shirt swamped her. "Morning," he said, seating himself at the table and propping his legs up on its surface.

"Morning," she replied, turning around and handing him a mug of black coffee. "Get your feet off the table."

"I'm not hurting it, and they're perfectly clean," he replied.

She rolled her eyes, but didn't argue, and sat down, very deliberately folding her legs_under _the table. He stuck his tongue out at her. "Oh, what are we, three this morning?" she retorted, and he chuckled. She smiled, thinking about how nice it was to see him so happy for once.

"You make the best coffee in the world," he said a few moments later, staring contentedly into his cup.

"Why thank you," she said dryly. "Edward, I think you'd drink horse urine this early in the morning if it had caffeine in it."

"Oh, hah hah."

"No, really! I should experiment with this. Let's see, I think Mellie has a horse…"

"Winry!"

She laughed and he joined her.

:x:x:x:


	3. happiness

**Title:** Happiness  
**Rating: **G/K  
**Genre: **More sappy fluff.  
**Word Count: **360  
**Author's Note:**Originally meant to continue somehow off of #2, Morning Coffee.

:x:x:x:

They lapsed into a comfortable silence that lasted while Ed gazed off into the middle distance, lost in thought, and she watched him. He was wearing only a pair of pants similar to those he'd worn in his military days. His organic hand was wrapped around his coffee mug; he took a sip out of it every few minutes. His eyes were slightly unfocused, but the expression in them was content.

_He looks so happy_, she thought, smiling to herself.

:x:x:x:


	4. clockwork

**Title:** Clockwork  
**Rating: **Um. T for implications of s-e-x, I guess?  
**Genre: **Still sappy fluff.  
**Word Count: **392  
**Author's Note: **Uh. Just a bit of description I liked the feel of.

:x:x:x:

She lay with her back tucked against his chest and her legs woven with his. One of his arms was under her head, being used as a pillow; the other was wrapped tightly around her waist. One of her own arms lay along his, their fingers intertwined. The other was bent up somewhat awkwardly so that she could hold the hand belonging to the arm under her head. His head was tucked into the curve of her neck and shoulder, his golden hair tickling her skin where it fanned across her back.

:x:x:x:


	5. caffeine

**Title:** Caffeine  
**Rating: **G/K  
**Genre: **Yet more sappy fluff.  
**Word Count: **811  
**Author's Note: **A variation on #2, Morning Coffee.

:x:x:x:

Five minutes after she poured her coffee, an arrhythmic thumping on the stairs announced Ed's arrival. He dragged himself into the kitchen, flopped onto a chair, and thumped his head onto the table with his arms spread out before him. Winry had to bite her lips together hard to keep herself from laughing at him. She set a second mug of coffee on the table in front of him and waited while he realized it was there and drained it before she smiled at him and said, "Good morning."

He looked blearily at her for a moment, then said something that sounded as though it might have been "G'morning."

She gave up and burst into giggles. He gave her a sleepy glare and let his head fall back onto the table again.

"Aww," she said, reaching forward and ruffling his hair. "Are you tired?"

"I hate you," he mumbled into the surface of the table.

She smiled. "Well, _I_ love _you_, so that's all right."

He raised his head and propped his chin in one hand, looking at her with amusement evident on his face.

:x:x:x:


	6. dishes

**Title:** Dishes  
**Rating:** T  
**Genre:** Snogging is fun.  
**Word Count:** 279  
**Author's Note:** basic story here: in "Healer," Winry tells Ed she loves him. He has acknowledged that he loves her, too, he just hasn't been able to actually tell her yet. Thus the following scene.

Also, something I forgot to mention with the last... ...howevermany: ficbits two through five were also Healer-verse.  
(wait, that's four. I can do math!)

:x:x:x:

He came up behind her as she stood at the kitchen sink, rinsing off her dinner plate, and slipped his arms around her waist. "Edward!" she exclaimed as he began to trail kisses along the side of her neck. He _knew_how distracting she found it when he did that. "Ed, I'm trying to – mmm, that feels good."

He laughed, a low, throaty chuckle, and ran his fingertips across the waistband of her jumpsuit. She hummed with pleasure and let her head fall back onto his shoulder. He used one hand to free her hair of its ponytail while the other pulled her more tightly against him. "I like your hair down," he murmured in her ear.

"Mmm-hmm," she replied, entirely unable to form words.

He laughed again, and, giving up on actually controlling herself, she turned around to kiss him properly. He responded eagerly, and for several minutes they stood in the kitchen, pressed close together, necking like teenagers.

When they finally parted, breathing ragged and faces flushed, Winry gasped out, "Good god, Ed, what was that for?"

"I dunno," he said, shrugging. "I just can't seem to keep my hands off of you."

She laughed, threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him briefly. "You are something else, Edward Elric," she said.

He grinned, wrapping his arms loosely around her waist, and rested his forehead against hers. They smiled at each other for several minutes; then, "I love you," he said spontaneously. His eyes went wide as he realized what it was he had just said.

Winry was staring at him in shocked silence. Then she squealed and, laughing again, said, "I love you too, Ed."


	7. reunions

**Title:** Reunions  
**Rating:** T  
**Genre:** Spun sugar  
**Word Count:** 330  
**Author's Note: **after the coffee scene(s) and before the baby. For some reason Ed was gone and he was doing a lot of alchemy. No, I don't know why. I realise it ends a bit abruptly; originally, it had more, but I didn't like the rest of it so I told it to bugger off.

:x:x:x:

He arrived unexpectedly one afternoon, as she had known he would. She was organizing the supplies in her workshop when he returned; she was alerted to his presence by Den, who had been sleeping on the porch. She bolted out the front door when she heard the dog barking, and her breath seized in her chest when she took in the familiar sight of Edward, golden hair shining in the sun, trudging up the long dirt road to the house.

He looked up and saw her, and waved; she waved frantically back, then ran down the road to meet him, realising suddenly that she didn't want to wait any longer. It occurred to him what she was going to do as she approached, and dropped his suitcase on the ground. She met him at full speed and threw her arms around him; his lips crashed down on hers, and there was a nearly audible click as her world fell back into place again.

"God, I missed you," she gasped when they finally parted.

"I missed you, too," he said softly, brushing her hair out of her face, and she smiled at him.

They walked back to the house in contented silence, holding hands like teenagers.

"You look tired," Winry commented as Ed dropped his suitcase on the floor in their room.

"I _am_tired," he said, flopping down face-first onto the bed. "Alchemy is exhausting."

"Aw, poor Ed." She crawled up beside him on the bed, resting her face close to his. He gave her a half-smile and reached out to pull her against him. She sighed happily and snuggled into his side.

"I missed _this_," he murmured, and yawned. She chuckled and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

"Go to sleep," she said; she could tell he was struggling to keep his eyes open. "We'll talk later."

"'Kay," he whispered, and, in deed, drifted off to sleep.

He woke up again several hours later, and they had a proper reunion.


	8. departures

**Title:** Departures  
**Rating:** T  
**Genre:** Fluff again, largely. A bit of actual plot in this one:O  
**Word Count:** 1,372

**Author's Note: **Still in the Healer-verse; this is a continuation of the 'coffee' and 'happiness' bits. Basic backstory - Ed is 'retired' from the military. Yes, I realise they probably wouldn't _let_him retire. Regardless, he's not in the military anymore. I actually would not put it past the Amestris military to pull someone out of retirement like this, either. Also - I don't know why it'd be "a couple of months;" I just sort of pulled that out of my ass. The bit about "had nothing against Mustang himself" - keep in mind this was written ages ago, before I knew about the Ishbal thing. That sentence will probably change. Later. When I'm not so lazy.

:x:x:x:

Her musings were interrupted by a loud knock at the back door. Huh? She thought, confused; customers came to the front door, not the back, and the residents of Risenbul with whom she was friends didn't bother to knock when they came over.

Frowning, she began to get up. Ed, his face mirroring hers, swung his legs off the table first. "I'll get it," he said, setting his mug down on the counter as he strode to the door. His words of greeting faded from his lips, and instead –

"_Mustang?"_

:x:x:x:

Winry had very nearly dropped her coffee mug when the military man stepped through her door, followed by his second, Riza Hawkeye.

"What the _hell_are you doing here?" Ed demanded to know as he shut the door behind them with more force than was strictly necessary.

"We need to talk, Fullmetal," was Mustang's deliberately vague reply.

"I don't go by that name anymore. You know that," Ed snapped.

Mustang opened his mouth to retort, but Winry decided it was time to interfere before this escalated into another one of the two alchemists' famous arguments. "Why don't you both sit down and have some coffee," she interrupted loudly. It was not a suggestion.

Mustang and Hawkeye both jumped slightly and turned to look at her; apparently neither of them had registered her presence. They took seats at the table as Winry got up to retrieve more coffee mugs. Upon noticing her choice of attire, Mustang grinned and Hawkeye raised an eyebrow. Winry pretended not to notice. She had nothing against Mustang himself, and in fact rather liked Hawkeye. She also knew their presence here couldn't mean anything good, and damned if she would go put on a pair of pants just to make them more comfortable when in all likelihood they were going to try to take Ed away from her again.

"So what's all this about, anyway?" Ed asked, his voice harsh. He had chosen not to sit down; instead, he was leaning against the frame of the door that led to the stairs, arms and ankles crossed, a belligerent expression on his face. Winry, feeling awkward all of a sudden, decided to remain where she was, resting against the counter next to Ed's abandoned cup.

There was a lengthy pause. "We need your help," Mustang finally admitted.

Winry's jaw dropped._ How dare they! _she thought.

"What do you need _me_to do that none of your dogs can do already?" Ed asked, very calmly, and she felt a surge of pride for him for actually keeping his temper in check for once.

"Believe it or not, there's been _another _disaster in Central," Mustang said. "One that you didn't inadvertently cause," he added, a trace of amusement in his voice.

"Very funny, Mustang. I still don't know why you need me for this."

Mustang sighed. "You know as well as I do that there are still rebels and insurgents out there, people that are unhappy about what the military is doing," he began carefully.

"With the military running everything, somehow that doesn't surprise me."

"Edward," Hawkeye said quietly, the first time she'd spoken since walking through the door. He looked at her for a long moment and then turned back to Mustang.

"You _still_haven't explained why I'm the only one who can help," he said again, though with less venom this time.

"Because said rebels and insurgents are causing severe problems in Central," Mustang said.

"And you want me to help you create another Ishbal? Yeah, right."

"No," Mustang said. "Members of the state military are being hunted down in the streets, alchemist or not. We've had to basically quarantine them inside headquarters, but even that's not stopping them."

"And you want me to do what, exactly?" Ed questioned.

"I'm getting there," Mustang snapped, then sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "Our defences are weaker than we'd like them to be," he went on more quietly. "It could take months to construct new fortifications.

"You're one of the most powerful alchemists we have, Edward," he continued after a long pause. "You can create – something, I don't know, a wall, perhaps, defense isn't my area of expertise, you'd have to talk to – "

"What he's trying to say," Hawkeye interrupted quietly, "is that unless you come and help us, a lot of good people _are _going to lose their lives. They may be dogs of the military, but they are still _people_."

There was another long, heavy silence. Finally, Ed broke it by groaning loudly and turning to thunder up the stairs. Winry glared at both Mustang and Hawkeye before thumping down her own mug and following him.

He was in their room, sitting on the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees, head in his hands. He glanced up as she came in, and the look in his eyes made her want to cry. He hadn't had that hard, haunted expression for a long time, not since he'd left the military.

"Oh, Edward," she whispered, and came forward to stand in front of him. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and rested his forehead against her stomach. She ran her fingers through his long hair, which he hadn't yet bothered to pull back in its usual braid.

"What do I do, Winry?" he asked finally, his voice rough, choked with tears he refused to shed.

"I wish I could tell you," she replied. "But I'm biased, aren't I? I want you to stay here, with me."

"I _want_to stay here with you," he agreed. She couldn't prevent a somewhat bitter smile from working its way onto her face.

"I know what I _should_do," he admitted. "But…I…Winry…" he looked beseechingly up at her. "Don't make me go," he whispered.

She dropped to her knees in front of him, so their eyes were on a level. "I'm not going to make you do anything," she said.

He leaned forward and kissed her, very softly. "Okay," he said when they parted. "Okay. I know what I'm gonna do."

:x:x:x:

"He's going with you," Winry told them.

Mustang nodded. "Good. Thank you."

"Don't thank me. Thank Edward. He's the one going."

"But you're the one who has to let him go," Hawkeye said.

Winry stared at her for a moment. "Could I talk to you? Alone?"

Hawkeye blinked, then nodded and followed her into the workshop.

"I know this is a lot to ask, and you're not the right person to talk to, and – "

"Miss Rockbell," she interrupted.

"Sorry." She flushed. "Just…take care of him, okay? He's…we've suffered enough already."

There was a long silence, and then Hawkeye smiled at her. "How long have you been in love with him?" she asked.

Winry flushed even redder. Her mouth dropped open, but no sound came out.

The other woman's smile stretched wider. "Does he know?" she asked.

"Yeah," Winry said after a moment. "Yeah, he does."

"And?"

"…We're happy," she whispered. "You should – have you ever seen Ed smile?"

"A couple of times, yes," Hawkeye said slowly.

"When he came home, after he left – after he left the military," she said, "it was all I could do to get him to _talk _to me, much less smile, or laugh – and now…it's rare that I _don't_see a smile on his face, or at the very least happiness in his eyes." She paused. "I don't want him to lose that." She looked up at Hawkeye. "So can you take care of him for me? Please?"

There was yet another long silence. "I'll do what I can," Hawkeye said.

"Thank you," Winry said, smiling.

Hawkeye smiled back.

:x:x:x:

Half an hour later, they stood on the front porch – herself, the two officers, and Ed.

"_Be careful_," Winry said, her voice low and fierce. "Don't you _dare_get yourself killed, Edward Elric."

"I won't," he replied, equally softly.

"I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you more."

A final, long kiss, and a tight hug, and "I love you," whispered in his ear.

And then he was gone.

Again.

She sighed and went back inside. A couple of months, they'd said. She'd be all right for that long.


	9. white dress

**Title:** White Dress  
**Rating: **G  
**Genre:** ...no real genre to this one.  
**Word Count:** 47  
**Author's Note: **short and simple, no context. Sorry. I just had this image in my head, and needed to write it down. I picture it on a hill.

:x:x:x:

Their wedding ceremony was a simple one. Winry wore a long, floaty white dress and Ed one of his nicer pairs of slacks. The Risenbul Justice performed the ceremony, and Winry's friend Mellie acted as a witness. And that was all.

But that was all they needed.


	10. glitter

**Title:** Glitter  
**Rating: **T  
**Genre:** Syrup.  
**Word Count:** 853  
**Author's Note:** Healer-verse. Takes place sometime between whenever it is Ed's in Central and ficbit one. I realise the end is a bit abrupt; originally it was going to be used for a longer fic that never got written.

:x:x:x:

"Hey, Winry, I got you something while I was in Central," Ed said suddenly one night as they snuggled before a roaring fire.

It took her a minute to process his comment; the warmth of the fire and of Ed had lulled her into a half-asleep state. "Ed, you've been home for nearly three weeks and you're just now telling me this?" she finally said.

There was a pause. "Um. Yeah." Another pause, longer this time.

"So…do I get to see it?"

She felt rather than heard Ed sigh, then inhale deeply. She caught a hint of movement in her peripheral vision and turned her head to the side; Ed was fiddling with something. "Have you ever regretted…well, us?" he asked after a moment.

"Of course not," she replied immediately. "I _love _you, Ed, you know that."

"I do," he acknowledged. "I just wanted to make sure, I guess." He was silent for a long time; she restrained herself from saying anything, recognising from long years of experience that he was trying to say something important and that he would do it when he was ready.

"If someone had told me when we were kids that one day I'd fall in love with you, I'd probably have told them they were crazy," he said at last, very softly. "Well, actually, I'd more likely have said something about cooties—" he chuckled. "But…point being…even with all the other crazy shit that's happened in my life, I never would have believed that I'd love you like I do, much less that you'd ever love me back." Another pause; by the tone in his voice, he was probably grinning wryly to himself. "Then again, maybe it was inevitable. Do you realize we've known each other for nearly twenty years, Winry? You've been there forever, you've _always_been there. Even back when I was running all over Amestris after that damned stone, you were waiting for me, weren't you?"

It sounded like he actually wanted a response, so she nodded against his chest. "Yeah, I was," she said. "But, Ed, what—"

"You are the _only_person that has ever _really_known me," he whispered. "Except for…for Al, but I couldn't exactly—well." He quit fidgeting and held his hand out toward the firelight. It glinted on something—

For a long moment her heart felt as though it had stopped in her chest. He was holding a delicate silver ring.

"I've been thinking about it," he continued quietly, "and I think, maybe, I've_always _loved you. I just didn't know how to admit it to myself. Thank god you were brave enough to confront me like you did, or who knows where I'd've ended up."

Winry couldn't stop staring at the ring. _Is he really—really—_she couldn't allow herself to finish the thought.

"Anyway," he was saying, "I'm rambling. Point is, Winry—I love you. You're literally the reason I'm still here. So…" he shifted out from under her and turned until he could look her in the eyes.

"Marry me?" he whispered.

Her heart started again. "_Yes_," she breathed, and flung herself at him, kissing him hard. He responded eagerly, and it took them a few minutes to recover enough for him to slide the ring onto the appropriate finger. Looking at it more closely, she realized that it was engraved with a pattern of swirling, convoluted spirals that somehow contrived to bear a striking resemblance to an alchemic array. Tiny chips of diamond had been worked into the design. "Oh, Ed, it's beautiful," she said.

He gave her a crooked grin. "Custom design," he said proudly. "Look on the inside."

She was reluctant to take it off, but did so anyway long enough to discover that along the inside of the band were inscribed their names, as well as a tiny design that even with its small size she recognized instantly – it was the same symbol that had been tattooed on his teacher's collarbone and had been painted on Alphonse's shoulder, as well as on the back of the jacket that Ed himself had worn for so many years. It had always been _their _insignia, a mark of the connection they shared that she couldn't breach – and now she had one, too. With an effort she kept herself from getting weepy over the gesture. She wondered for a moment if he realised its significance to her.

"It's not much," he said, in a sheepish tone of voice.

"It's perfect." She slid the band back onto her finger and leaned forward to kiss him again.

"I didn't think a huge diamond would suit you," he said a few minutes later, a bit breathlessly.

"It wouldn't have. And I don't need flash and sparkle, anyway." She wriggled her fingers and watched how the fire caught the miniscule facets of the diamond chips, making them glitter. "Well, maybe just a little."

He laughed and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close against his chest. "I love you," he whispered in her ear.

"I love you too," she whispered back, and smiled.

Outside, snow began to fall.


	11. challenge

**Title: **Challenge  
**Rating: **T  
**Genre: **Winry being angry  
**Word Count: **544  
**Author's Note: **Takes place immediately following "Healer." This is the closest I will ever come to a sequel. Apologies yet again for the sudden ending.

Also much thanks to my one two three reviewers! So here is more for you, sooner than I originally planned to post again.  
And Edo too for thinking of a title for it 'cause before, it didn't have one.

:x:x:x:

The week following _that_night was more than a little awkward. Ed spoke to her as infrequently as possible, and she couldn't quite work up the nerve to say anything herself.

Finally, though, she got sick of it and went to find him. He was sitting out on the railing of the front porch, leaning against the pole at the corner, one foot propped up on the rail and the other dangling beside him. He was staring off at nothing, a pensive expression on his face.

"Hey," she said softly. She hoisted herself up to sit next to him and hooked her feet through the rails for balance. He glanced over at her and didn't respond.

She sighed. "Ed, we have to talk about this. We can't deny what happened."

"Sure we can," he said quietly.

"I _won't_. Edward, this is ridiculous. You know as well as I do that – that didn't just mean nothing to you."

There was a long pause. "No," he finally admitted. "But I can't let you—" he stopped himself. "What if something happens to me again? Then what?" Winry opened her mouth to argue, but he interrupted her. "I can't hurt you anymore."

"Don't you realize you're hurting me now?" she burst out. He looked up at her, startled, then away. "Ed, it hurts that you're trying to pretend nothing happened! And it hurts that you don't seem to care!"

He didn't respond to the barb as she had expected him to. There was another lengthy pause. "Kiss me," she challenged him.

"What?" he snapped, finally looking up at her.

"You heard me."

"_No_!"

"Why not?"

"Because I can't let myself fall for you!" he shouted. Her jaw dropped open. "If I do, and I screw up—"

Realisation hit her. "You selfish _jerk_!" she screeched, reaching out and smacking him as hard as she could on his left arm.

"_Ow_, Winry—"

"It doesn't have anything to do with me, does it? You're just trying to protect_yourself_! How _dare_y—mmmph…"

He cut her off with his lips on hers. Her back was bent at an awkward angle and his automail was digging into her arm where he held it, but she didn't care; he was kissing her and God, he tasted good. She kissed him back, shoving his leg off of the rail so she could get closer to him; he wrapped his other arm around her and she untangled her own legs and crawled into his lap, without breaking the kiss.

"Don't say that," he said fiercely when he pulled away. His grip on her arm was bruisingly strong. "Don't _ever _say that I don't care. I care, Winry." He kissed her again, hard, for just a moment.

"Does that mean you'll stop being an idiot, then?" she asked when she had caught her breath.

He had the grace to look embarrassed. "Yeah."

"Good." She smiled at him. "I do love you, you know."

"I know." He gave her a crooked sort of half-smile in return and rested his forehead against hers, then, after a moment, kissed her again, softly this time. "We'll make it work," he said. "Somehow."

"Promise you won't run off on me?" she asked, though she was still smiling.

"Promise."


	12. night visitor

**Title: **Night Visitor  
**Rating: **T  
**Genre: **Woobalicious_ angst_  
**Word Count: **479  
**Author's Note: **Please don't ask. I don't know.  
Yay, no more Vanishing Al Syndrome! Non-Healer verse; sorry yet another time for the random ending.

:x:x:x:

Ed was sound asleep in Winry's bed when his brother came back to them.

It was very early on a Thursday morning; Winry had been up all night working on an automail design for a new commission, and was in the kitchen downing the last of the coffee to try to stay awake long enough to finish the preliminary sketches. The thump on the back porch startled her badly, and she cursed as she splashed reheated coffee on the front of her coveralls.

"What the _hell_," she muttered, banging the half-empty mug down on the counter as she walked toward the back door.

Sprawled on the porch was a ragged little figure that Winry recgonised instantly. "Oh, god," she whispered, and dropped to her knees next to him. He was unconscious, and to her trained eyes it was immediately obvious that he was underfed, dehydrated and exhausted. She gathered him up as carefully as she could and carried him inside, where she put him on the couch and pulled an afghan over him.

Then she went to wake Ed.

He was sprawled across three-quarters of the bed, hair a mess, automail fingers clenched in her pillow. She hesitated a moment, watching him, marveling at his presence as she still sometimes caught herself doing -- and then she remembered why she had come upstairs and leaned over to shake him awake.

Edward never liked being woken up before he was good and ready; it was almost possible to see him physically resisting it, forehead wrinkling and fists clenching before he groaned and opened one eye to stare blearily at her. "What?"

"You need to come downstairs," she said softly.

He opened the other eye and sat up slightly, looking more closely at her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just -- you have to see -- I don't know..."

He looked alarmed now. "Winry, what on earth--"

"Please," she interrupted him. "Just get dressed and come downstairs."

"All right," he agreed, sitting the rest of the way up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "I'll be down in a minute."

Satisfied that he wouldn't crawl back into bed the moment she left the room, she hurried back downstairs and straight to the couch, where he had curled up in a ball, huddling against the back of the couch.

Mismatched thumping noises in the hall signaled Ed's arrival, and she glanced up as he walked into the room -- and froze in the doorway as though he'd run into an invisible wall. "Alphonse," he said in a choked voice, and stumbled forward to drop to his knees next to his little brother. He reached a trembling hand out to hover over Al's cheek. "How-- where--" he began, unable to form a coherent sentence.

"He was on the porch," Winry replied softly. "I don't know how he got there."


	13. snoring

**Title: **Snoring  
**Rating: **T  
**Genre: **lol.  
**Word Count: **109  
**Author's Note: **Uh. I dunno. I like this one, it makes me giggle.

:x:x:x:

Ed was a terrible bed-hog.

It took Winry a grand total of one night to figure this out. Less, actually. She realised it when she was awoken at three in the morning by her idiot boyfriend rolling over and flinging an arm across her, apparently totally unaware that he'd done so. He refused to be moved back onto his side of the bed, either -- and she had thought his automail was heavy!

Finally she settled for moving his arm to where it didn't feel as though it were crushing her lungs and curled back up against him to sleep.

It could be worse. At least he didn't snore.


	14. storytime

**Title: **Storytime  
**Rating: **G  
**Genre: **Awwww.  
**Word Count: **230  
**Author's Note: **Written for the prompt "storytime" (thanks Mariah!). Mmm, Ed in glasses is _tasty._

:x:x:x:

"Ed? Tell me a story."

He blinked over wire-rimmed glasses at her. "What?"

She sat up slightly, propping her head up on one hand. "No, really. Tell me a story."

He put his book down and stared at her for a moment. "Uh, okay. Um..."

There was a long silence.

"Once upon a time..." Winry prompted.

"Once upon a time," he began obediently. "There was... a..." He thought for a moment.

"There was a little girl," he said finally. "Her best friends in the world were two little boys who were brothers. When they were little they did everything together. But when they got older the brothers went away. And even though the girl was the only real friend they had left, they forgot about her for a long time.

It wasn't until the little brother was lost that the big brother realised how much he needed the girl, and came home to her. And it took a long time after _that_ for him to figure out that he'd been in love with her all along." He glanced down at Winry and was shocked to see tears streaming down her cheeks. "Winry... no... what's wrong?"

She sniffled and smiled at him. "Nothing." She pulled his book out of his lap and crawled halfway on top of him. "I love you, too," she said, feeling his arm go around her shoulders.


	15. strange noises

**Title: **strange noises  
**Rating: **G  
**Genre: **Soft and fuzzy.  
**Word Count: **434  
**Author's Note: **Written for the prompt "strange noises." Also thanks Mariah!  
Mmmm, more glasses!Ed.

:x:x:x:

Winry was cleaning off her workbench when she heard a loud thump from below.

_There's something in the basement! _she thought, and bolted upstairs to find Ed. Normally she wouldn't have been afraid of something as silly as a mysterious thump, but she _hated_ the basement and all its creepy shadows.

Ed was holed up in the guest bedroom he'd taken over as a study, engrossed in a thick leather-bound book. He looked up as Winry entered. "Ed there's something in the basement it thumped go find out what it is," she said, all in one breath.

He removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Winry... there's nothing in the basement."

"But it thumped! I heard it!"

"Nothing can get into the basement."

"There's a window..."

"Doesn't it have a lock?"

"...well, yeah, but--"

"So nothing can get into the basement."

Winry put on her best puppy-dog-pout face. "_Please _go look? For me?"

Ed rolled his eyes at her. "Oh, good god. All right. You're coming with me, though."

She followed him all the way to the door to the basement stairs and then froze. "What?" Ed asked, turning around to look at her. "You can't _still_ be scared of the basement."

"So what if I am?" she retorted defensively.

"Winry..."

"All right, all right! Just -- go!" she exclaimed, and stayed close to him as he opened the door and strode easily down the stairs.

The basement was dark, its lone lightbulb having burned out several months previously. Winry reached the bottom step and refused to move any further as Ed stepped out into the center of the room and alchemized the lightbulb to work again.

Crouched in a little wet lump on the shelf below the room's one window was a tiny kitten.

"Ohhh!" Winry exclaimed, instantly going starry-eyed. "Ed _look_..." she hurried across the room and scooped it up; it mewed pitifully at her and hid its face in her shirt.

"Winry..." Ed started to say.

"Oh let's keep it," she said, spinning around to face him. "Please Ed? Look how tiny it is, it's just a baby! The window must have come loose and it crawled inside..."

He sighed. "No chance you're gonna let us give it away, are you."

"Nope."

He sighed. "Fine."

She positively lit up with delight and half-bounced back across the room, pausing to brush a kiss across Ed's lips as she passed him. "Thank you," she said, smiling, and then she was gone, up the stairs and back into the kitchen.

Grinning, Ed shook his head and turned off the light.


	16. peanut butter

**Title:** peanut butter**  
Rating:** G**  
Genre:** yummy**  
Word Count:** 110**  
Author's Note:** Wow so uh. It has been 9000 years since I actually updated this thing. These aren't new drabbles; I apologize for that. They're just some that I had up on my fic journal on LJ but never got posted here.  
My original notes for this one say that I wrote it in all of about three minutes.

:x:x:x:

Ed has always thought of peanut butter as a comfort food, perhaps because he had vague memories of his mother making him and his brother lots of peanut butter sandwiches when they were small.

So it wasn't uncommon for Winry to catch him with half his hand stuck inside the peanut butter jar, trying to scrape out the corners. More often than not she would roll her eyes at him and hand him a spoon; she'd long since given up scolding him for it, as it didn't do any good.

The thing she couldn't grasp was how he ate so much peanut butter and never drank any milk with it.


	17. religion

**Title: **religion**  
Rating:** G**  
Genre:** introspection**  
Word Count:** 113**  
Author's Note:** I realize this basic concept has been done to death in the FMA fandom, but I still really like this one.  
My notes say I also did this one in about three minutes. Written, obviously, before the last chapters were released.

:x:x:x:

God is plastic and wire and steel casings, working together in harmonies that she has written; faith is the people who are able to walk again, to work again after she fixes them. The closest she has ever come to prayer was in the instant after Alphonse stepped into her house, transformed into a hulking metal monster, with his brother dying in his arms - and then reality slammed back into her and all she cared about was saving him.

But on the day they come back home to her, both brothers fully restored to their flesh bodies, she wonders if, just maybe, there might be something to this religion thing after all.


	18. Christmas

**Title: **Christmas**  
Rating:** PG, tops**  
Genre:** adorable cliches**  
Word Count:** 634**  
Author's Note:** Another concept that's been done to death by fandoms everywhere. I _really_ like this one, though.

:x:x:x:

It is almost Christmas and Winry is ecstatic.

She _loves _December, the candles lit in the windows and the pine tree dragged into the house and set up in the family room and strung with popcorn strands - she and Al spent three hours making them - and the candles lit in the windows and the smells of gingerbread and peppermint and cinnamon in the air. Most of all she loves the feeling of anticipation that is unique to Christmas Eve, that sense of expectation and excitement that never quite goes away when childhood is left behind.

Al is no better; as soon as he woke up on December first he was ready for it to be Christmas _now_, and has gone around beaming and talking incessantly about Christmas traditions and stocking stuffers and snow since. Ed grumps around and pretends he hates the holiday season, but Winry knows him well enough to see past the facade and know that actually, he's just as excited as they are - but for some mysterious Ed-reason he thinks he can't show it.

On the fourteenth it _finally _snows, as it has been threatening to do for a week now, and all three of them bundle up in their warmest clothes and pile outside to build a fort and hurl snowballs at one another.

Winry cackles with delight when she dumps a large handful of the stuff down the back of Edward's jacket, and he puffs up like a cat and chases her down as she runs shrieking. He tackles her into the snow bank that has piled up around the log pile and pins her down, grinning at her. She laughs at him and yanks off his hat, throwing it away across the yard; he follows it with his eyes but doesn't get up to chase it, and she sticks her tongue out at him for not acting as predicted.

He draws a circle in the snow over her head. "Snow angel," he says, still grinning like a lunatic, and Winry about melts - he says the sweetest things sometimes, apparently without even realising he's doing it because she can't imagine he plans these things in advance. In response she reaches up and pulls on his braid until he leans down and kisses her, and then Alphonse, whose presence has heretofore been forgotten, dumps a pile of snow on their heads and they leap up to run him down as he bolts, howling with laughter and thoroughly pleased with himself.

They finally troop back in hours later, damp and shivering. Ed's hat is still buried somewhere, and Winry has lost one of her gloves and Al his scarf, but all three of them are beaming. Winry makes hot cocoa and they all pile on the couch in front of the fireplace to warm up. Ed wraps the two of them in the big quilt off his bed and Al claims the afghan that usually stays folded on the back of Pinako's old armchair. They stay in front of the fire until it burns down to cinders, reminiscing about childhood Christmasses and cracking bad jokes (mostly at Ed's expense). They finally go to bed when Winry dozes off against Ed's shoulder and drops her mug on the floor.

Al is, as usual, the first one awake on the morning of the twenty-fifth, and comes pounding down the hall to bounce on the end of Ed and Winry's bed, yelling at them to "Wake up, wake up, it's _Christmas_!"

"What are you, _four_?" Ed groans, sitting up and rubbing his eyes as Winry stretches sleepily next to him.

"On Christmas I am!" Al grins and jumps off the bed and goes thundering downstairs, knowing that now that they're both awake they'll trail down after him in a minute.


End file.
